While you can buy magic sets in many toy shops, the ones stocked by real magic shops tend to be of better quality. There are many to choose from – but here are a couple we’ve seen.

The Spectacular Magic Show 100 set features DVD teaching by a professional magician and some really good tricks that you don’t often see in these sets. At £29.99 it represents good value too.

If your child is slightly older and enjoys watching Dynamo, then they’ll love this offical Dynamo Magician Impossible set. It also has some contemporary feeling twists on classic effects. Well worth a look. £29.99.

Similarly the Chris Angel Mindfreak set has some great effects which would cost you much more to buy individually. £35.99

For an older child, or an adult who quite likes the idea of having a go at some easy magic tricks, the Tenyo company in Japan produce some amazing new more or less self-working effects every year, any of which would an ideal Christmas gift.

I’ve had a look at the releases for this year, and there are three that particularly catch my eye! Perpetual Puzzle is a Tenyo take on a classic effect where you continue adding pieces to a jigsaw puzzle and yet it still fits the same frame! (£28.50) Magic Maze is an amazing prediction effect where the outcome of a randomly produced ‘maze’ is predicted. (£19.50) And Psycho Gravity is a very puzzling effect where a round disk stops rolling down a slope to reveal a hidden selection. (£23.99) All worth a look!

If you’re buying for someone who loves close up magic and has been doing it for a while, then you’ll need to look out for an exciting new release!  And it just so happens Wayne Fox has put a lovely effect out called 5221. You ribbon spread a deck, get a spectator to choose a card and then you can cut to it instantly!  And there’s an even better phase two I won’t spoil here!  £30.17  (actually this has been out for a while – but has been unavailable because it sold out first time round!)

We hope you have a wonderful Christmas, get some magical Christmas gifts when it comes, and enjoy a magical December!

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The good

Although I don’t like the way we throw around the word ‘organic’ today –there is something natural about using the card case for some mind-reading – which can either add variety to your card set or transition into a mentalism segment. You’re provided with a number of gimmicks which seem well made and enable more than one outcome if you’re repeating it in an evening.

The teaching is clear, the DVD simple but nicely produced, and a couple of variations are taught – including a version which will leave your business card in the spectator’s hand.

The bad?

Hmmm. I’m not sure there are real ‘bad’ points, but there are some less good things! The ‘tabs’ you are provided with don’t match current Bicycle tuck cases. Now I am not one of those who think this is a deal breaker – because how many spectators know what a tuck case really looks like? So this is probably simply overthink/magician’s guilt for some people.

To be most effective the performance does require a bit of careful scripting and a certain amount of boldness. In my mind, almost any mental magic effect worth its salt needs both of these – but I’m just warning you that you might not be able to perform the strongest version straight away. This is one of those tricky things to evaluate – it isn’t something ‘difficult’ you are required to do – but does require confidence to sell it fully.

The verdict

There’s a lot we like about this, but with a few reservations. Although Wayne describes it as a big set piece – I’m not sure that I see that. It feels like a smaller effect – perhaps, as suggested, making that transition into a set of mental effects. It has the potential to be genuinely fooling, but feels a little over-priced at £26.99 (at the time of writing).

Available in the UK direct from MagicShop.co.uk.
Review copy kindly supplied by Murphys Magic – to whom all dealer enquiries should be made.

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